simply because there was a serious state polls just before the debate and they show that it was closing. after romney had a bet of september as you could have which kind of confirms my belief that there is a lid on obama ceiling, that because of the poor economic record there is a limit to how bloated and committed to obama people are and now i would say, still agree with my colleagues that i think obama is the favorite that i think it's more like 55-45 and i think it's very clear, still somewhat difficult but a much clearer path to romney winning the presidency. >> let's talk about the debate for a moment. based on your comments and sources what went wrong or the -- what went wrong for the president and how did romney become the super debater? we hadn't seen romney in the prior few months or so in terms of being assertive and authoritative. what happened in the white house and what happened with romney? >> i like jay leno's line that only the nfl replacement refs thought that romney one. [laughter] and to keep that metaphor going, the president looks to me like the team that was vastly